Around January 1, 1890

In this day and age, newspapers rarely print fiction. Of course, there is the occasional magical story written by a third grade class that appears every once a week in the Arts and Entertainment section of the paper, but for the most part, fictional stories of real substance are not published in newspapers anymore. This was not the case in the 1800's. Appearing in The Valley Star each week was...

An 1890 article from the Manatee River Journal clearly noted the importance of the cigar industry in Florida. Following the cigar manufacturers' strike in Key West that same year, Florida was forced to recognize cigars as a major agricultural product. The opportunities that the cigar industry offered, as well as the profits, made cigar factories in Florida as valuable as tobacco...

On the last day of 1889, an editor of the Roanoke Daily Times criticized "the relations of the races," which, he avowed, "do not appear to be at all improved by the election of a Republican president." The editor continued, affirming that black people had "become restless and arrogant in a large measure, and ready at any time to enter on the work of bloodshed and murder." ...

As the news of the destruction of the 1889 Johnstown flood reached beyond Cambria County, relief and aid efforts immediately began to mobilize and move into the valley. Among the first to arrive was Clara Barton, the "Angel of the Battlefield." Barton's American Red Cross was a relief organization that she founded during the Civil War. During the war, she and her envoy of good...

Many masked men broke Willie Wallace, the infamous outlaw of Harris County, Georgia, from jail in Hamilton at eight o'clock in the morning. The group of masked men rode quickly into town and disposed of guards on the roads leading to Hamilton. Ten of the masked men remained outside the sheriff's house. The men broke in through the front door of the jail and proceeded to find Wallace's...

Authorities in Barnwell, South Carolina had arrested and jailed a group of black men, accusing them of the murder of a pair of white men in the area. As the eight suspects sat in their jail cells one night in late December 1889, a group of masked men entered and forcefully removed them from the jail. The masked men took the accused and slaughtered each and every one of them. While the law enforcement...

On January 8, 1890, an intoxicated H.O. Jenkins approached J.H. McNeilly, an employee of Jenkins's distillery, with a drawn knife. McNeilly had boarded with the Jenkins's family while also working for them, and had fallen in love with Jenkins's seventeen year old daughter. The teenage girl, however, did not have reciprocal feelings for McNeilly and did not appreciate his advances. ...

On January 9, 1890, Colonel Thomas P. Stovall closed a deal on one of the largest land transactions in the state of Georgia in recent history. His company, the Union Real Estate Trust, purchased 24,000 acres of plantation land used for cotton cultivation located in Twiggs County, Georgia. The land was not being used to its highest potential, which was a significant appeal to the Trust company. Their...

Events across the south served to reinforce the southern state legislatures efforts in pursuing segregation and separate coach laws. One such incident happened in Atlanta, Georgia. Three business men A.W. Boggs of Chicago, E.D. Gilmore of Pittsburgh, and P.E. Brady of Tiffin rode the Pullman sleeper train from New Orleans, Louisiana to Atlanta, Georgia. On the ride the lower berths filled, so...

On January 18, 1890, The National Economist published the political viewpoints of the strengthening Farmers' Alliance. The article indicated that Alliance leaders remained skeptical of the political system and its ability to represent all parts of the population (especially farmers). In response to the closed two party system of the time, the Alliance strove to create a third movement in accord...